soccerchamp76

I have seen far too many "get slim fast" techniques that enver seem to work. Way too many fad diets (weight watchers, atkins, etc.)

What ever happened to running and eating healthy? Calorie counting and jogging every day for 30-60 minutes. Every other day do some situps/pushups/pullups for some definition.
It can be hard for a drastic diet change, but as long as you eat in moderation, it can be done.

Cannot do without McDonalds? Order the grilled chicken sandwich with mustard instead of mayonaisse and a Diet Coke. Most sandwiches at Subway (minus mayonaisse) are acceptable. Eat fruits as snacks during the day. Small breakfast-apple/banana - Semi large lunch (not fattening) - apple/banana - small dinner. Run

HarmlessRabbit

I object to your calling Atkins (or weight watchers, for that matter) "fad" diets. To me, a fad diet is a diet that promises quick weight loss with no transition to a more permanent way of eating. The Grapefruit diet, the Hollywood diet, and the Cabbage Soup diet all come to mind.

If you read the atkins book, you would see that what atkins does is take away empty foods from your diet (white bread, sugar, alcohol, snacks) and slowly teaches you a new way to eat. Atkins also highly encourages exercise as well.

Weight Watchers is a little too focused on their own product line, I think but I still wouldn't put them in the "fad" category. Weight Watchers focuses on sensible meal choices and weekly weigh-ins to help people lose weight.

Personally, I find your suggestion of Subway (white bread), fruit (sugar), apple (sugar), banana (sugar) to be very high in sugar, and a better option would be more veggies, more whole grains, and more protein and fat.

There are a lot of good diet plans out there that try to teach you a new way of eating. I like Atkins, but Body for Life, Weight Watchers, Eat More Weight Less, Body for Life, and the South Beach Diet all seem reasonable to me, and they all try to teach good eating habits, not just have people lose the weight and gain it back.

But any diet, even your common sense approach, requires that people actually want to lose the weight more than they want to supersize that meal. Unfortunately, in the USA, most people go for the supersize option.

Scrub0

Cut calories drastically. Works for me.

yoshi

I totally agree Harmlessrabbit! I'm doing Atkins as well and changing my eating habits has been a plus for me.

TaLoN

rabbit said atkins is good, not bad

ronan

atkins diet basically tells you not to eat carbs which is bad for you, for a long period of time that should not be done.

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Pennington

Go vegan for awhile. Not too long, only a month or so. The lack of dairy and meat will make you lose weight faster than anything else. Also, try some type of easy exercise practice. Personally, everytime I post to TFP or K5 or anything I do 5 pushups or crunches. Easy way to buff up fast.

BentNotTwisted

Absolutely true. Taken to an extreme and done over many months the Atkins diet can make you very sick. If you plan on doing it I recommend you work with your physician so he/she can monitor your progress.
That said, Soccer's suggestion is valid if a person has the will power to do it. In America, we live in a society that keeps you glued to the tv eating empty calories. There's no way I could run daily for 5 minutes, let alone 30 to 60 min. I'd like to some day, but that's not going to happen for a long time. Meanwhile I'll take little steps: cut back on calories, park my car at the far end of the parking lot, etc. I would question Soccer's suggestion of eating a minimal breakfast. I'm not really up on it, but it seems a person needs the initial calories, after fasting and resting all night, to get their metabolism started again.

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HarmlessRabbit

I think you're both talking about the Atkins Induction phase, which lasts two weeks. The Ongoing Weight Loss, Pre Maintenance, and Maintenance phases of Atkins are all healthy diets and I think the only thing a typical nutritionist would object to in the diet would be too much animal fat, which Atkins doesn't have a problem with.

Any diet taken to an extreme over many months is unhealthy, but then you're not following the diet (unless you're on the Anorexic Diet Plan or something). There are no studies that show the atkins diet is unhealthy. None. There is one recent study that shows that compared to the AHA's Step One diet, most people don't follow either Atkins or Step One over a six month period, but that people who did follow atkins were healthier than people who did follow Step One. That's the most negative thing I can find in terms of negative medical evidence for atkins.

It's really frustrating to me that people don't do research into the Atkins diet and just assume it's a fad diet. It's not. It's a way to learn a new way of eating for the rest of your life, and the book is very clear on that right from the beginning. I've lost over 30 pounds, kept it off for years, and improved by blood cholesterol from 210 to 150 while on Atkins.

tv.

The only way to lose weight is through fitness or $$$.

doctorphibes

I'd disagree that Weight Watchers is focused on their product line too much. Yeah, they offer the bars and frozen foods, but I think you're thinking of Jenny Craig.

And I remember reading somewhere that Dr. Atkins even said that what was being promoted as the "Atkins' Diet" wasn't what he had in mind, and was totally unhealthy. Plus alot of the food that is being packaged and marketed as part of the Atkins program doesn't even conform to it.

HarmlessRabbit

Maybe each office is different. When my wife was in Weight Watchers here in CA, it was very product focused. Anyway, my point was that weight watchers is a perfect reasonable, non-fad diet.

Hmm, while I agree that a lot of people follow atkins incorrectly, I don't think you can extrapolate from that that the Atkins diet itself, properly followed, was unhealthy. I don't think atkins was dissing his own diet, when and if he said that. Most people fail to follow any diet program, the study I mentioned above showed that with Atkins and Step One.

this is true. You have to be careful with non Atkins-branded products. A lot of stuff labeled as low-carb really isn't. There was recently an expose of a florida company that blatantly mislabeled their products low-carb when they were not.

Buyer beware.

trialzin

Eat right and exercise, simple but true. Find something you like to do, I myslef mountainbike 2-3 times a week at 20-30 miles a ride plus hit the gym 3 times a week. Thats in the summer, in the winter I have to hit the gym everyday to keep the legs inshape for cycling. Remeber to take the weekends off to enjoy yourself. The weekends are the times you can have your sweets and snacks and PIZZA!
Personaly I do not watch my diet as alot of others do, I eat what I like, good thing is to stop eating redmeat and switch to chicken and turkey, remove the skin of course and do not fry it in oil. Very high in protien, does the body good. heheheheh shit maybe I should start taking my own advice LOL

doctorphibes

Right, maybe I wasn't too clear, but what is known generically as the "Atkins Diet" today is *not* what he originally planned. I can't say myself if his diet is good or not, but I didn't say that in my original post. I just said that he had stated at some point that people had misinterpreted his findings and developed some wacky "I just eat meat and cheese and hard-boiled egg" diet. Which, frankly, I'm willing to stipulate is not the best thing for you.

soccerchamp76

While taking my "fad" diet comment back; a good diet is one that restricts certain foods. The Atkins diet cuts back on sugar which is one of the biggest sources of weight gain. The problem I have with the Atkins diet is that many people may not be able to lay off bread, fruit, and other carbs for a long time. I tihnk you may eat anything you want, in proportion. If you want to have a slice of cheesecake, maybe eat a Nutrigrain bar for lunch and do some running to make up for the calorie gain. It all depends on moderation and proportion.

Remember: 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories

Low-fat/Low-cal Diet + Exercise = Weight Loss

MacGnG

drink LOTS of water this will help but you wont get skinny just from it.

HarmlessRabbit

Also, i heard a rule of thumb (don't know if it's true) that 1 pound of muscle gained = 50 calories per day of metabolism to maintain it.

So gaining a pound of muscle gives you 350 less calories a week "free".

Anyone know if this is true? Googling turned up nothing.